As the size of semiconductor devices has continued to shrink and circuit densities have increased accordingly, thermal management of these devices has become more challenging. In the past, thermal management in semiconductor devices was often addressed through the use of forced convective air cooling, either alone or in conjunction with various heat sink devices, and was accomplished through the use of fans. However, fan-based cooling systems are undesirable due to the noise attendant to their use. Moreover, the use of fans requires relatively large moving parts, and correspondingly high power inputs, in order to achieve the desired level of heat dissipation. Furthermore, while fans are adequate for providing global movement of air over electronic devices, they generally provide insufficient localized cooling to provide adequate heat dissipation for the hot spots that typically exist in semiconductor devices and in many types of electronic equipment.
More recently, thermal management systems have been developed which utilize synthetic jet ejectors. These systems are more energy efficient than comparable fan-based systems, and also offer reduced levels of noise and electromagnetic interference. Systems of this type are described in greater detail, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,588,497 (Glezer et al.). The use of synthetic jet ejectors has proven very efficient in providing localized heat dissipation, and hence can be used to address hot spots in semiconductor devices and electronic equipment. Synthetic jet ejectors may be used in conjunction with fan-based systems to provide thermal management systems that afford both global and localized heat dissipation.
Despite their notable advantages, however, there is a need in the art for further improvements in thermal management systems which utilize synthetic jet ejectors. In particular, new electronic devices are currently under development which pose significant challenges to existing thermal management solutions.
As a specific example, various low form factor projector systems are currently known to the art. These projector systems are advantageous in that they are significantly more portable than conventional projector systems. However, at present, these devices offer relatively poor contrast ratios, and hence the images they generate are clearly visible only in darkened rooms. Led technology offers a potential solution to this issue by significantly increasing the number of lumens generated by the projector so that the images generated by the device will be clearly visible even in normal ambient lighting conditions. Moreover, LED light sources are inherently compact, and do not themselves contribute significantly to the size of the projector. However, the thermal management solutions currently available for these devices do not provide sufficient heat dissipation for such technology to be implemented, and also adversely affect the size of the device.
There is thus a need in the art for a thermal management solution which addresses these infirmities. These and other needs are met by the devices and methodologies described herein.